Knowing Not To Know
Lawrence S. Pertillar 1947 (Connecticut)
If one in a position,
Expected to know...
What they do not.
Yet defend decisions they make.
Done to pretend,
A knowing of more...
Neither to prove it shown,
Nor made known of a knowing...
Of what it is,
Leaving others awaiting...
For their 'rumored' expertise to give.
This 'expertise' to admit,
Is not theirs to have anywhere to exist.
Can be the best confession to hear,
'I Don't Know! I Not a Clue or Idea!'
This to say that will allow people to use,
Their own minds.
And a common sense,
That begins an acquaintance with it.
To discover and ultimately find,
More reliable to depend upon.
'What are you saying?
That I should be more responsible,
And accountable...
For those decisions I make.
With a doing myself?'
'Uh...Yes!
Yet...
This done to do,
Could be painful for you.
However...
Attempt it to try.
The first effort to endeavor,
May cause an immediate feeling of fear.
And just perhaps,
You will stop to recognize...
Your own voice familiar heard clear.
A doing done to claim and blame,
Your actions felt on others to say...
They went out of their way,
To be liars dishonest and deceiving.
When the truth to delude and fiction it,
Had been your way of life to live.
Denying the facts.
And proof of reality disgusting!
'But...
So accustom I am,
To making excuses and alibis!
At least I kept this denied to hide it.
Wait a minute here.
Why am I admitting this to you?
You are not my therapist.'
'Calm down.
Now...
Who is it do you blame,
For not making your coffee...
The way you like to drink it?'
'What?'
'And who do you blame,
For deciding to wear...
The clothes you put on your back?
To then accuse someone else,
For not finding...
Your decision to make,
Neither attractive nor appealing.'
'How dare you assume,
I am not fashionably updated.
Or a setter of future trends.
This has nothing to do,
With decisions made by others I follow.
And depend upon.
To make me feel safe and secure.
I am not your average bubblehead!'
'Nothing I said,
Compared you to being...
An average bubblehead.
And people wonder why,
Not only are their minds messed up.
But also the times we are living in.
To then pretend their non-involvement!'
'You know nothing about me,
Or what I know to know it or don't!'
'And I feel I don't have to, either.
I don't give or recommend to suggest.
Or throw around valuable advice.
My immune system and DNA.
Is as different as one snowflake,
Compared to another!'
'I hope...and God knows I am hoping,
You are not attempting...
To make sense to me.
This objective smells of failure.'
'Hey...
Trust me,
No.
I'm not trying to prove anything.
I have already survived.
From being that kind of fool identified.
And...
Those tests?
I thank God...
I have long passed.
With a knowing of who and when
I should admit a knowing...
Of anything.
And more and more I prefer my days,
These days of a craze being normalized?
Is to leave folks like you,
Believing me to be stupid.
An idiot or somebody's made fool!
'Mission accomplished.'
'What?'
'I am convinced.
Your mission has been accomplished.'
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Submitted by lpahtillah on December 21, 2021
Modified by lpahtillah on December 21, 2021
- 3:24 min read
- 10 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XABCXXXDEDXFXGX XXXFXH DIICX EXJJKLKMXNMOPPDFXXD XXNFGJX XXOQF OXXXDCD XRXJAHXB XDBLXXX QX KXXPCK DDQK PQADXXXXXXXDDXXJRX XX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 3,023 |
Words | 675 |
Stanzas | 14 |
Stanza Lengths | 15, 6, 5, 19, 7, 5, 7, 8, 7, 2, 6, 4, 18, 2 |
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"Knowing Not To Know" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/116308/knowing-not-to-know>.
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